


Top Shelf

by Elenhin



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2013-10-27
Packaged: 2017-12-30 14:58:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1020052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a wonderful series of 'one lines' being posted by the very talented and generous  Aramirandme81 called One Word at a Time. These lines have been very inspiring to me, and so with the most kind permission I have been allowed to play with them. </p>
<p>So here I give you 'Top Shelf' inspired by the line 'Shelf' </p>
<p>The line was, Axl at fourteen stands on tip toes to reach the highest shelf, Anders at twenty-one still can’t. </p>
<p>My story starts with the first half of this line, and ends with the second half, the stuff in between is my thinking of the matter. Big thanks to  Aramirandme81for letting me play with this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Top Shelf

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the Almighty Johnsons, nor any other stray Norse Gods found in said show. Anders assures me that in spite of popular belief he is not a dwarf, though my three inch high Fili and Kili does not quite appear to agree with him. Anders is also under protection of Kili and no permanent harm will come to him in my fanfic stories.

Top Shelf

 

Axl at fourteen stands on tip toes to reach the highest shelf, grabbing the bowl there and passing it to Valerie who is looking a little harried by now. Anders at the table is engrossed in his book, scribbling like mad in the notebook beside him and just barely catching himself in time before he runs out of page and is writing on the table instead.

 

Apparently there isn’t much that can inspire sympathy and understanding in his English teacher and given what he’s studying it’s a subject where he really needs a passing grade. A part of him enjoys the challenge of having to push himself. Axl might like to goof around and just slide through certain classes but it’s not what he likes to do. If he has to be there, he wants to get something out of it, and since this is something he’s chosen for himself, a career he knows he will be able to make a decent living on, well, cheating on it would only be cheating himself.

 

Normally it would not  have been a problem either seeing as he tends to take care of  the school work almost as soon as it’s assigned. Of course there are exceptions, for who can concentrate when there’s a beautiful girl just begging to be picked up, taken out and brought home? It would not be the right thing to do, and he’s all for doing the right thing.

  
This time however it is certainly not his fault that he is late with the work. Valerie hasn’t really been happy about it since he has been studying instead of doing house chores but Mike had stepped in for once. Not that Anders needed him to save his ass, but it was nice to see Mike stand up to Val instead of turning into a henpecked fool.

 

He had missed a lot of classes because he was sick, and while he wasn’t sick as often anymore it still happened and usually at the most inconvenient time. As it was he was glad he had recovered in time for his birthday. It was bad enough to be sick on your birthday when it was one that did not matter, but your twenty first, that was just too much.

 

He still had to catch up in school, and that was not easy.

 

It had still been a good birthday though, Ty had made breakfast. Ty was an awesome cook, better than Valerie Anders thought even if he had sense enough not to say that so she could hear. He also cared enough to make it things Anders actually likes.

 

She makes ‘special’ breakfasts for Ty and Axl at times when she’s in the mood and thinks they deserve it, and Axl always gets pancakes while Ty gets yoghurt with fresh fruit and that special grain bread he likes so much with raisins and stuff in it. It makes Anders shudder but Ty loves it, only it’s a bit on the expensive side so they don’t buy it often. Axl gets syrup on his pancakes and cereals with marshmallows and shit in them. She does it for Mike too, egg, bacon and ham. Big heaps of it with sausages.

 

It was weird when she made it for him since she would not normally do that. On the other hand he was pretty sure that Ty made her do it. It had been a really shitty week at school and Ty had been the only one who was sympathetic about it. Then when the weekend finally came he caught a cold. Again Valerie had not been very sympathetic but he had not been in the best mood and Ty had tried to cheer him up. The day after Valerie claimed she had made a special breakfast for him to help him feel better and he had thanked her, it was just that it was not what he liked at all.

 

It was like she had made it for all of them, stuff Axl liked, the yoghurt and the sausages, and it was all the bits he liked the least. He just smiled and thanked her though, not about to start a row when she had tried to be nice. It was like she just didn’t know what he liked. She had poured him a huge glass of milk after all, and he didn’t like milk. He ate his cereals dry and had juice with them. Ty gave him a surprised look when he drank it, but at least he appeared to understand that he was trying to be nice and appreciate it.

 

He also made some cupcakes when he got back home from school so that Anders would get something special that he really did enjoy.

 

Of course Axl stole both the mixture bowl and the icing bowl though so he didn’t get to lick either.

 

Ty knew what he liked and had made french toast, baked some tomato in the oven with just a dribble of honey and boiled the eggs because it was the greasy bits of the food that he did not like. It was weird when he knew she had tried to be nice to him, and yet proved that she did not know him at all. She had never liked him, that much had been obvious from the start but it was fine by him. His own mother had always ignored him and treated him like he wasn’t important so he didn’t see why he should expect different from Valerie. After all, back when Mike was hanging out with her and Rob they used to like poking fun at Anders, always mocking him for being short even if they said they were just teasing him.

 

They might think it was fun, but he did not.

 

Valerie really cares about Ty and Axl, he knows this. She loves them and really is a proper mum to them and he’s glad for that.

 

Sometimes it just bugs him that all he can do is watch what it’s like and never really experience it. He knows he shouldn’t be letting it get to him, especially not today, but being picked on for not helping with chores on your birthday, when you have not had much sleep because you have to catch up in school. It really isn’t fair, not even by the crappy standard he is used to. He’s not even had his presents yet because there hasn’t been time, Mike wants him to go with him to the forest for some stupid family tradition, and given that’s how their mum died he can’t say he’s minded to. Valerie has been acting really weird because she’s stressed about the party so she’s been snapping at him half the morning. Sure, she does not want the party, but he does, and he figures she’s just being weird because of Rob. Rob and Valerie would always go to parties and he knew how they ended. This is her first party without Rob, and he figures it will be the first party where she’s not having sex at the end of it. Something she can’t be happy about.

 

“Anders, get me the bowl,” Valerie nods to a bowl on the top shelf.

 

“I’m busy,” he chews the end of his pen, trying to figure out how to manage the problem in the book.

 

“Anders, if I have to do this, for your party, then I don’t want to have to tell you to help me again, or there will be no party. Do you understand?” she demands angrily and he puts the pen down.

 

“I’m sorry, but I got to get this finished, it’s not that I don’t want to help, and I really am grateful we’re having the party, but I don’t have the time to help. Wasn’t Axl supposed to?”

 

“Axl isn’t here right now,” she half snaps. “Now start helping. Give me that bowl.”

 

Anders sighs and stands up, then drags the chair he’s been sitting on over to the cupboard so that he can stand on it. He really hates being the smallest one, short in a family where most everyone else appears to be freakishly tall. It’s really why he did not want to help her, the embarrassment of having to use the chair. He knows he has to though, even if all the rest of them could though Axl just barely yet. They are all tall enough to reach the shelf, even Axl but still not him, Anders at twenty-one still can’t.

 

The End

 

Please comment, the Cricket is hungry.... The Cricket also reccomends the reading of One Word at a Time by Aramirandme81.    Listen to the Cricket.... ;)


End file.
